Land Use Planning

At long last, the North Carolina General Assembly has finally repealed a controversial piece of legislation known as the Map Act. As I explained in a previous Legal…

This is the 33rd and final research newsletter of 2018.  What a year it has been! Publishing a hardcore policy newsletter every week would not be possible without a team…

Try as I might, I can’t see the wisdom behind this proposed “transformative” projects expansion. I can’t. It’s terrible. For as long as I can remember, governors have tried…

Transportation planning in North Carolina took a wrong turn in 1987 when the General Assembly approved a controversial piece of legislation known as the Map Act. The Map Act…

North Carolina House Bill 56 got a lot of press earlier this autumn when the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of the legislation.  But most of the discussion…

This week, Carolina Beach’s Town Council met to discuss regulations on accessory buildings.  According to the Town Council’s own documents, the discussion started because “A few of the Commissioners…

Since the idea was announced in 2015, I’ve been keeping an eye on a proposed ballpark in downtown High Point.  No one who’s read anything I’ve written…

The House GOP Obamacare-lite bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), has officially cleared the House of Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees and is now being reviewed…

The Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina infuses the Medicaid program with winning market-based strategies of competition, accountability, transparency and a common-sense funding structure. Although policymakers should explore additional ways to make the Governor’s proposal even stronger, the Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina represents a major step forward in transforming Medicaid into an affordable and successful health care safety net.

In recent years, an increasing number of local governments across the nation and across North Carolina have adopted “Smart Growth” policies. However, North Carolina should look to the future and adopt a flexible growth agenda — Flex Growth. Flex Growth is a market-based system of principles for government land use and development policy, especially at the state and local government levels, based upon the idea that people — and not government bureaucrats and planners — know what is best for themselves.